My day's been slightly grueling. Started off behind schedule, then progress was really slow on the laser (working on a separate project). Once things got going and I realized I'd need to extend the time on the machine, I called downstairs and naturally someone had booked the space immediately following (the production lasers are almost never busy). Fortunately I was able to get a slot a couple hours later, and used the gap to do some finishing work on the pieces I was making in the wood shop, but that was painfully crowded. Everything came together workshop-wise once I started that second laser session, but then my email box started getting slammed, including some important updates on another big non-playa project I'm working on.

I finally got home a little while ago, and it turns out that in order to work on the updates on that other big project I need to restart all the machines, and of course the big render I started over the weekend is moving ever-so-slowly along. It'll hopefully be done Wednesday, if not then by Thursday, which puts me way behind on that. It probably says something that the least crazy thing going on around here is building a ziggurat

trilobyte wrote: the least crazy thing going on around here is building a ziggurat

Time for drinks!

Yay! And Double-Yay!

But my drink right now is

Oh man Trilo I pulled a dusty "dogtag" out of my treasure chest yesterday: "The Bar Is Open." Gonna wear it to work today, since, my boss was careful to warn me that a Big Corporate Overlord would be in our space today & I promised to look "respectable," bwahahahahahahaha...

First and foremost, I'm happily relieved to hear that Risky was able to walk away from that flying swingset incident. These things, when they occur, seldom end well.

..and Happy Birthday to all of the recent birthday burners.

Definitely in scramble mode here too. Watching my list slowly get whittled down from the top while reluctantly seeing things dropping off from the bottom. I guess the two meet in the middle when I start up the truck and head out of the driveway. Woohoo!

ygmir, I always liked scalding my poison oak with a hot/hot shower directly on the itch. 'take that, mother f-ing, poison oak, take that'. and it seemed like it 'killed' the nerve endings and didn't itch anymore. and the scald burns were preferable.

Back from latest kinetic race, in Corvallis, OR. Unjonharley was on hand to jeer and mock me both days.

But the Corvallis mud beat me. I rolled about five feet into it and found myself One With The Earth. Now we know where all the horses go in Corvallis -- Glue! The mud was pure glue. 18 inches deep. Four out of 15 entries got thru.

But I showed them how to conquer sand and water -- including exiting from the river on the notorious "Ball Bearing Beach". Good times.

Today was just a big ball of goddammit. Everything took longer than it should, things didn't connect the way they should, and hassles at every turn. As if that wasn't enough, just as my sweetheart was coming in the door, we heard the electronic chirp signalling it was time to replace the battery on the smoke detector. Of course in this new place the big room has high ceilings, and we don't have a ladder that can do that. So off we raced, to the local hardware big box of nonsense (because the awesome hardware store across the street is only open til 5, and the chirp is loud and piercing enough to disrupt sleep patterns. Dang, a hundred bucks later we're heading back with a ladder. And while we weren't expecting any campmates to come over to paint tonight (nobody'd RSVP'd on the event she set up), suddenly people are texting her telling her they're on the way. We let them know to take their time, raced home, and I got to changing out the battery. Except... it's still chirping. WTF! I swapped batteries in all the other units (they're inter-connected in the building, and have battery backup. No go. We call the building people, and the guy's only advice is to try taking out the batteries. Which only makes them angrier, they all started chirping. For a while there, the chirps were only 30 seconds apart - something's definitely up. And it was something he said he wasn't allowed to come out for... grumble grumble. And as I'm trying to figure this crap out, people start streaming in and asking a bunch of questions on other topics. Great people, great conversation, but I'm trying to focus elsewhere.

We muddled through a chirpy painting session, then I got back to trying to figure it out. I tried swapping batteries, modules, you name it. After isolating which part of which module was causing the fail, I was able to get the chirping back down to something reasonable, and then managed to disable the little internal battery that drives the chirping when the AC and 9-volt are gone. Ugh.

I finally got that knocked out a few minutes ago. I sit down at the computer and check on the render that's been running for the last few days, and hooray it's finally finished. Except... dammit, 60 frames have a glitch in them. Of course, it's been that kind of day. Ah well, not much to be done about it at this point, at least now I can get some big computing stuff I needed to do the other night done, reboot the machine for a 'clean' environment, and then once that's done set things up for the next shot and get that render started as soon as the other thing finishes. After, of course, I fix myself another drink.

Oh gosh (((Trilo))) well, we all have those days. I hope that's the end of it and things will go smoothly today.

Okay wait I need

Yggy, sorry about your skin. Nilasnake is giving good advice about hot water; that can release the histamine in one big burst and calm the itch for several hours. But you don't have to scald yourself to get the benefit; less hot longer time will work. Finish with cold water, and, my favorite: a Domeboro soak. Domeboro is old fashioned stuff but should be easy to find at a chain drug store. Good luck!

Elliot!!! Magnificent achievement even if the mud did suck you to a halt!

Any alarm which also detects CO will fail in five~ten years. It chirps until you kill it dead. Mine have only died when I'm home alone. There';s also one on the furnace filter, which echoes through the ducts. That was fun.

Larry has to take his student driver to IL to upgrade to a new truck. So much for getting stuff done this weekend. I may see him next week. At least I'll get art made. Dangerously low on cat food. They might eat me.

*wanders in, makes tea*wow, Trilo...........that's just a sucky day!! so sorry about all that. Glad to hear it ended well, at least.

HI MDF! yeah, I'm holding tight on the poison oak, been rubbing hand sanitizer on it (mostly alcohol, but gell), that seems to provide some relief.....and little spots are showing up all over.

your race sounds fantastic Elliot!! yay you!!

this yerba mate tea seems to be good.........it seems to suppress apatite some, and may be helping me stay awake during the day better. So, I'll give it some more time. It's also supposed to have theophylline and some other stuff that might help with allergies, too. So for now, off the fexofenadine, just to see.........I'm feeling such the herbal hippie today.......haaha

Fire engine of "Frankencamper" is about done, as far as pre Burn check......I'll try to stay more dry today.

*sitting at the bar, looking thru his mail -- bills in one pile, death threats in another, etc*

Here's a good one! A postcard from Time Magazine, informing me that I overpaid when I renewed my subscription. So now I may request a cheque for the excess amount, or they will simply extend my subscription by one issue. The amount I overpaid is... one cent. Wonder what it cost to mail the post card?

Thanks guys. I checked the CO2 detectors, it was definitely one of the smoke detectors. At first I thought it was some corrosion on one of the 9V contacts, but after scraping that off with the end of an exacto blade, no luck. Further investigation revealed that the other 9V contact was also loose, and appeared to be shifting somewhat when getting turned over (after placing the battery). Pandorra's already got a note in to the building management to replace it. They're usually fairly responsive (unless it's night-time haha), but if they don't, we will. Okay, off to get stuff done!

[*saunters in like she's been here all along*]hia gang. what's itching? Ygmir, what you wanna do for the poison oak sting is to pee on it or have a friend pee on it or some combination thereof.ok, I'm all out of good advice. I could use some good advice on a job or project in or around Reno. I'm in Hot Springs Montana for a few days but then off to the little big city.annyhoo. it's like 100f here I need a Beer and some dust.

.......................................................................................Oh yeah, this year I was totally twerping out at the fence. ~Lonesombri

ygmir wrote:*wanders in, makes tea*wow, Trilo...........that's just a sucky day!! so sorry about all that. Glad to hear it ended well, at least.

HI MDF! yeah, I'm holding tight on the poison oak, been rubbing hand sanitizer on it (mostly alcohol, but gell), that seems to provide some relief.....and little spots are showing up all over.

your race sounds fantastic Elliot!! yay you!!

this yerba mate tea seems to be good.........it seems to suppress apatite some, and may be helping me stay awake during the day better. So, I'll give it some more time. It's also supposed to have theophylline and some other stuff that might help with allergies, too. So for now, off the fexofenadine, just to see.........I'm feeling such the herbal hippie today.......haaha

Fire engine of "Frankencamper" is about done, as far as pre Burn check......I'll try to stay more dry today.

dang time is running out.

Yo, Ygmir.

Being the outdoorsman for many years now and having taken the worst that mother nature has at TTITD, the tornadoes here in MO, and all kinds of nasty critters in the wilds of the Appalachians, I learned a couple of hints on poison oak that might help you. IDing the offending agent is easy. It's an oil also on poison ivy and sumac called urushiol. A very sticky oil.

The herbal remedy to stop it works best just after exposure, rubbing jewelweed around the affected area. which aids in drying it out. Afterwards, try aloe vera .

The low-grade pharmacopeia method that works is usually calamine lotion or powder. Also aids in drying it out, because of the high concentration of zinc oxide, an astringent.

Washing it off ain't a cure. UNLESS you use fels naptha soap. Stuff my grandmother turned me onto, rest her soul. Grandma always had good advice. It's a laundry soap that works pretty well on oils and grease. Follow with calamine for the itch.

Hydrocortisone cream you can get in varying strengths, too, and it kills the itch. Benzadrine-based antihistamines are also used by prescription by MDs to treat it.

Peeing on it, as knowmad suggests, is only good for keeping the bears away, marking your territory, don't cha know. If you've got bears, then you have a different set of problems that is only adressed by the National Park Service3 mantra, "There is no such thing as a bear-proof trash can."

Loved your post, Rhino!!! Good to see you Knownmad. YG, if you got an itch, don't scratch it!!! Sounds like you had a beeping day in hell, Trillo. Sounds like things are back to normal. Can't wait to see what all you have been making.

Poor Yiggy! I'm so allergic to poison oak that I've been in hospital with it twice. The only real cure is time - runs it's course in about two weeks. It travels through the lymphatic system so you may see new spots crop up where lymph glands are close to the surface of the skin. There are some good new treatments out there made by a company called Tech-Nu and is the best stuff I've found so far to keep the itch down to a dull roar.

Good Luck! I think I'd rather have major surgery than a bad case of creeping crud poison oak!

Edited to add - the VERY best treatment is to liberally apply good whiskey - internally.

Mojojita wrote:Poor Yiggy! I'm so allergic to poison oak that I've been in hospital with it twice. The only real cure is time - runs it's course in about two weeks. It travels through the lymphatic system so you may see new spots crop up where lymph glands are close to the surface of the skin. There are some good new treatments out there made by a company called Tech-Nu and is the best stuff I've found so far to keep the itch down to a dull roar.

Good Luck! I think I'd rather have major surgery than a bad case of creeping crud poison oak!

Edited to add - the VERY best treatment is to liberally apply good whiskey - internally.

Well said, Mojoita. And good catch of something I'd forgotten because I take it for granted now. I use the Technu product to PREVENT poison ivy and oak. My agency issues the stuff to us along with DEET, permanone, Cort-aid cortisone cream and yearly field safety training.

Best part of the training: Situational awareness. Be aware of what you're getting into before you go there. Kinda like playa prep 101.